Acorn Squash with Apples & Cranberries

One of my favorite fall side dishes is Acorn Squash with Apples & Cranberries.  My husband and I decided to have this for our main course tonight after eating a large lunch at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival.  

When I was at Publix this week, I saw these adorable Sweet Dumpling Squash.  They are shaped exactly like acorn squash, and taste-wise, I can't tell the difference.  

The hardest part of this recipe is trying to cut the squash in half to get them ready for roasting. 

The inspiration for this dish comes from a recipe for Acorn Squash with Apples from a Penzys Spices catalog.  

This recipe gave me the chance to use my certified gluten free cranberries from Nuts.com.  I buy all of my dried fruits, nuts, and seeds from them now so I don't have to worry about cross-contamination.  

Eating squash filled with apples, cranberries, cinnamon, and nutmeg made this feel like a fall day, even though our temperatures are still in the high 80s.  

I stuff as much apple mixture in and on top of my squash as I can.  

I usually serve my acorn squash with pork chops or pork tenderloin.  It would also be an excellent side dish for a roasted or rotisserie chicken, or with turkey on Thanksgiving.

Acorn Squash with Apples & Cranberries

Ingredients

2 medium or 3 small acorn or sweet dumpling squash
1/2 C (one stick) butter - divided in half and melted in 2 separate bowls
1/4 C light or dark brown sugar
2 tart apples - peeled, cored, and chopped (we use Granny Smith)
1/4 C + 1T dried cranberries
2 tsp minced orange peel  or 2 T of fresh orange zest
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cover a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil.    Cut your squash in half, remove the seeds, and place them face down on your pan.  Bake them for 40 minutes.

Combine 1/4 C of melted butter with the brown sugar, stirring well.  In a separate bowl, combine the other 1/4 C of melted butter with the apples, cranberries, orange peel, cinnamon, and nutmeg. 

When your squash are finished baking, turn them over, prick the flesh all over with a fork, then brush on the butter/brown sugar mixture, pouring any extra into the squash halves.  Fill each squash with the apple mixture before baking for an additional 30 minutes.